Bariatric Surgery Can Lead to Changes in Relationship Status

THURSDAY, March 29, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Bariatric surgery is associated with changes in relationship status, according to a study published online March 28 in JAMA Surgery.

Gustave Bruze, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues examined changes in relationship status after bariatric surgery in two cohorts: the prospective Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study, which included 1,958 patients who had bariatric surgery and 1,921 matched obese controls, and participants from the Scandinavian Obesity Surgery Registry (SOReg), which included 29,234 patients who had gastric bypass surgery and 283,748 comparators from the general population.

The researchers found that in the SOS study, for those in a relationship, there was a correlation for bariatric surgery with increased incidence of divorce/separation versus controls (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.28); for those who were unmarried or single at baseline, there was a correlation with increased incidence of marriage or a new relationship (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.03). In the SOReg cohort, gastric bypass correlated with increased incidence of divorce compared with married control participants (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.41); for those who were unmarried at baseline, there was increased incidence of marriage (adjusted hazard ratio,1 .35). Changes in relationship status were more common in those with larger weight loss within the surgery groups.

"In addition to its association with obesity comorbidities, bariatric surgery-induced weight loss is also associated with changes in relationship status," the authors write.